Kaldur huffed slightly as he scrambled into Robin's bolt hole. He knew his friend well enough that it really should not have surprised him that his friend would chose a hidey-hole that was both dangerously high up and difficult to get into, while at the same time providing ample cover, plenty of room to move and an abundance of potential escape roots. He watched in silent amazement as the shadows drew closer further obscuring Robin from his view.

He shoved down his surprise at the sight of his unmasked friend, and did his level best to ignore the way Robin's eyes glowed an icy blue in the darkness. Idly he wondered if Robin's eyes were always that brilliant, intense blue, or if it was a result of the form he currently wore. He figured the glowing was a combination of the form he wore, his emotional state and the darkness that gathered around him like a shroud.

"Hello, my friend." He said softly ignoring the shiver that ran up his spine as Robin's vertical slit eyes narrowed at him. Again he felt like he was dangerously close to a predator.

"Kaldur'ahm," Robin acknowledged, fangs flashing in the strangely muted light.

Kaldur settled himself down on the tree limb beside his friend, noting the gashes in his gloves where apparently retractile claws had sprang through the fabric, and the soft sheen of light silver fur reaching up to Robin's elbows above the cuff of his gloves. He filed that bit of information away hopeful he'd be able to identify his friend later. Given proper resources.

Robin's black tipped tail twitched at his scrutiny, and the smaller boy stiffened slightly before relaxing. Not in an "I feel safe way." He knew Robin well enough to tell the boy was preparing for a confrontation, his body relaxed and ready to move in any direction at need.

Robin was deceptive that way.

Appearing perfectly calm, relaxed and harmless, before lashing out with amazing ferocity.

"I mean you no harm, my friend." He said gently and watched Robin shift into a more open, less defendable position, slim arms wrapping around his knees as he curled in on himself. Abruptly reminded of how young Robin was he reached out and gently placed a hand on the boy's back, idly rubbing small circles. His father had done the same when he was young and distressed. It had always struck him as an odd gesture, but Robin seemed to respond well to it. Leaning into the soft touch.

It took a few minutes, but Robin shifted and slumped against him. It was not a situation he had any experience with. Usually when the team rescued little kids it was Robin or, surprisingly, Superboy who handled them. Both seeming to possess an instinctive way with them. He'd never expected to have Robin cuddled up against him like a small child seeking comfort and safety with his elders. Robin always seemed so strong, fearless, a born leader.

Yet right now he was a scared little boy.

For some reason, it drove home the other boy's youth more cruelly then watching him runaway had.

Kaldur waited in silence for Robin to talk. His friend would talk when he was ready and not a second before. He'd seen Robin nimbly avoid interrogation, and dance around a verbal confrontation with an easy grace. Robin was a Bat, and like Batman himself was fully capable of lying through his teeth by the simple expedient of telling them the exact truth in a manner that would give them exactly no information what so ever.

It was endlessly amusing to watch and entirely frustrating to experience.

So he waited.

"How angry is the team?" Robin enquired in an almost inaudible tone a few more minutes later.

Kaldur raised a brow at the question. "They are confused and worried for you." He replied softly, "but they are not angry."

Robin snorted, "I have a tail and I never told them." He rubbed his eyes with the back of his wrist. Kaldur had seen him do it countless times before, and never thought much about it. Now it made sense, Robin had claws, retractile or not, it was probably not a good idea to become too comfortable with having his nails close to his eyes.

"That has always been your choice," he replied. Taking Robin's statement as confirmation that he was not human. "We all have secrets my friend, your decision to hide your species is understandable given the attitude of most surface dwellers towards those who are different." He paused briefly before enquiring, "You are obviously uncomfortable. Why have you not shifted back?"

"I've tried," Robin whispered, ears all but disappearing into his hair. "I don't know what Klarion did, but until I figure out how to reverse it, I'm stuck this way."

"I see," Kaldur replied in as soothing a tone as he could manage. "Perhaps Dr. Fate or another member of the League could be enlisted to undo the spell."

He didn't know what he had been expecting but the reaction to that simple statement was most defiantly not it!

"No!" Robin Shrieked voice high with youth and raw terror. He sat bolt upright before curling into an impossibly tight ball. Tail curled protectively around his body, ears flat against his skull in a blatant display of distress. "No, No, no, no!" The boy rambled in a high pitched panic. "No one can know. As soon as anyone finds out, Batman will find out. He can't! He can't find out! He'll send me back. It wouldn't be hard, I'm not even properly adopted, not like Jaybird is. He doesn't need me. He has Jay. I'm just the charity case. Everyone says so. He'll send me back. He can get - I can't - I can't do that again. I gave up everything so he'd never find out. Everything I was, I gave it up. I won't do Juvie again! I CAN'T!" His tone changed abruptly going from young, and terrified; to something and more than a little desperate and flatly resigned, "I won't," he snarled. "I won't go back. I swore they'd never take me back. I'd rather die than live through that again!"

Something in his tone screamed with deadly and tragically familiar promise.

Kaldur reacted to that promise without thinking as Robin moved with a fluid and deadly grace, claws ripping free of his already tattered glove tips.

Thank Neptune!

Even with surprise on his side he almost wasn't strong enough. He caught Robin against his chest, tackling him to the floor of the strange den of twisting tree limbs they currently occupied. Mere seconds before those wickedly sharp claws would have connected with their target. Robin stiffened in his grasp as he caught hold of his friend's wrists and dragged them up over his head.

Robin struggled violently against him, bucking his hips, tail thrashing, and claws scrabbling at the ground. His eyes were almost jet black with terror. He opened his mouth and made a high pitched, inhuman noise that tore through Kaldur's very soul. He swore colorfully, and fought to keep the smaller boy under control. Shifting his position in a desperate bid to steal Robin's leverage. He wasn't sure how he managed it but he shifted sharply, rolling up off the floor in a move that was less grace and more desperate attempt to keep the other boy pinned, without crushing him or allowing him to do either of them harm. Somehow he caught both of Robin's legs between his own as the smaller boy thrashed, and dragged the smaller body into his lap and against his chest.

He held on for all he was worth as his friend thrashed and uttered profanities in several languages. All while clawing at him with wickedly curved and deadly sharp nails. It took every ounce of his strength but he held on while the smaller boy wore himself out against him. Held on until angry curses subsided to half panicked sobbing, and eventually waned into the exhausted hiccups of one who has well and truly worn themselves out. He relaxed his grip on Robin's legs and shifted his friend around in his arms so that he lay cradled against his chest like a baby, but refused to let go of his friend's wrists.

He was not about to give up control over his friend's hands until he was certain the danger had passed.

He shifted his position slightly and locked eyes with Robin. "Don't you dare hurt yourself." He said firmly, eyes on the deadly sharp, wickedly hooked claws that had at one point been a mere inch from the soft flesh under Robin's jaw.

Robin blinked at him eyes wide. Then looked down at his claws, carefully he rotated his wrist, until the small bone lined up with Kaldur's thumb, a slight rotation and a deft tug was all it took for him to slip the larger boy's grasp. Kaldur winched at the slight sting of friction against the delicate membranes between his fingers.

The other boy flushed, chest heaving. "I'm okay now." He mumbled.

Kaldur seriously doubted that, but refrained from commenting. Noting absently that while Robin had deliberately freed his wrists, he hadn't moved to get out of his lap. He was not sure how to handle the situation he'd just found himself in. Robin had just tried to hurt himself. Part of him screamed in terror at the idea of losing Robin. The way they'd lost poor Xyleo.

None of us took that seriously and we lost a friend because of it. I will not lose another friend not like that.

He closed his eyes briefly. For now this whole debacle would stay between them, but if he thought for a second that Robin was a further danger to himself, he would tell the team and Batman. Robin would hate him for it, but at least he would be alive to hate him.

"I may not know Batman as well as you do my friend, but I think you underestimate his affection for you." He paused briefly. "Is Batman your father?" he enquired after a moment, carefully shifting his friend into a slightly more comfortable position across his lap. Hard to do considering the fact that his friend currently had a tail.

Robin shook his head, then sighed. "It's complicated." He finally confessed.

"Explain it to me then." Kaldur ordered softly, "Know that what you tell me goes no further."

Robin looked at him, searchingly, out of vibrantly intense blue eyes. It took a minute but he evidently found what he was looking for because he sighed, slid sideways out of Kaldur's lap and – for lack of a better term – cuddled into his side. His tail curling protectively around him. "What do you know?" he asked after a minute.

"That you are barely fourteen. Terrified of Batman discovering what you really are, which suggests that whatever else he may be, a Fox Spirit is not among them. He's defiantly not a Vampire, despite what certain tendencies may suggest. He's been seen in daylight to many times for that theory to hold water. Batman is not your father, yet he seems to represent a large power in your life. You mentioned adoption, and someone called Jaybird. As such I judge your relationship to be closer to the one between Flash and Kid Flash, then to the relationship between Artemis and Green Arrow."

He paused and realized with abject shock that he was absently scratching his friend's ears. He flushed and removed his hand. "I also know this fourteen is very young for any of the nine courts. A fact that makes you either extraordinarily young to have manifested on this plain alone, or the chronological equivalent of fourteen. I can also ascertain from your previous statements that you apparently have a criminal record."

Robin sighed and looked away. "I do not have a criminal record." The boy told him firmly.

Kaldur raised an eyebrow at that bit of information. "Could you clarify please?"

Robin rubbed the bridge of his nose with exaggerated care, mindful of his claws. "How much do you know about" he paused looking for the right word, and ended up muttering to himself for a moment in a language Kaldur had never heard before. "The Prejudices of surface dwellers?" he finally settled on.

Kaldur found himself wondering for the umpteenth time if English was Robin's first language. "Enough," he commented mild annoyance at the issue rearing its head.

Robin nodded decisively. "My cultural practices are… frowned up." He informed him tone laden with disdain. Kaldur listened in silence as Robin outlined his life before being taken in as Batman's ward. The death of his entire family at the tender age of eight, being thrown into a 'boys correction program' for three months following their deaths, because his social worker believed he came from 'a culture of thieves and lay-a-bouts' and thought the ridged disciplinary structure would 'help him to shed the criminal behavior he had been brought up with.' The smaller boy was careful to omit anything that could identify him. He left out exactly what culture he had grown up in, and how his family had died, but Kaldur got the picture.

Thinking about the boy he'd met a few years ago in that situation made him physically ill. Robin had been ten when they'd first met. Happy, energetic, and full of life. But also Tiny. He'd flitted easily from shadow to shadow behind the Dark Knight, before using his forbidding mentor as a human Jungle Gym – as soon as he'd been assured it was safe to come out of the shadows.

He remembered his horror at the child's irreverence, when the little slip of a thing had bounced off of Batman, wrapped a leg around his king's neck and shoulders and proceeded to dangle himself off of the man, in a twisted parody of a necklace. He'd followed up by, reaching out to wrap a slim arm around Batman's hips, before dropping off of Aquaman, twisting around Batman in a show of boneless grace, and somehow perching himself on Kaldur's own shoulders with a soft "Hi."

He considered everything Robin had told him, and the things he hadn't mentioned and noticed that while Robin admitted to having been raised in an unconventional manner. It seemed as if he was still raised … well… Human. He considered how to broch the subject he truly needed information on at this point. Because if Robin was what he suspected, then the boy was beyond dangerous. He needed to know the extent, of the potential danger. "Your family," he asked after a moment. "Where they…" he trailed off unsure of how to ask his question.

"Freaks like me?" Robin enquired, with deceptive cheerfulness.

"I was going to say Foxkin." Kaldur replied, with careful neutrality, internally he was debating bringing the lack of self-esteem that reply represented up with either Batman or Black Canary. After a moment he dismissed the idea resolving to keep an eye on his friend. For now. If it became an issue later he would bring it to someone's attention. "It would be intolerably rude to call you Ch'amak Aluxi for example if you were actually Kumihoii for example."

The look Robin was giving him was utterly incredulous, and spoke volumes without Robin even having to speak. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and alarm. "You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?"

Robin shook his head.

Kaldur groaned. "Your parents?"

"Human," Robin replied promptly. He flushed and added. "Dyaiii said she found a fox kit in my bassinet for the first time a few hours after I was born." He looked down, "Dadroiv thought I might have gotten the gift from Puridaia'sv side of the family and promised to investigate the next time we were in India. As far as I know they ruled out that possibility. Dya thought it may have been a latent gift from her side of the family. She called it, Gaia's blessing upon her Great Grandfather's family. She said her Grandfather used to tell stories of family members who could turn into foxes, but the gift had supposedly faded into legend in our family by my great grandfather's great grandfather's time." Robin flushed, "Grandma and Grandpa never approved of 'the old man' filling her head with fanciful stories. My aunt hit me with a frying pan once, when I accidently shifted shape in front of her." He shuddered, "Mother told me what she could remember of the stories, just in case. We visited her grandfather once, she asked him about if after they sent me to bed. He told her it was too early to tell. We never were able to find out if I got the gift from her family or not. They died before I was old enough."

Kaldur suppressed the urge to groan. Fourteen, he had a fourteen year old Fox Spirit Kit on his hands. This was going to be bad. The Foxkin were notoriously difficult to deal with, and viciously protective of their kits. The fact that Robin had been born to humans was alarming for several reasons, the first being that they had absolutely no way of knowing exactly what he was and thus no way of figuring out the powers he was likely to develop. They needed to know what the hell Robin was before he accidently hurt someone. He remembered Zatanna's belief that she'd seen Robin using a mage light, and while that was a possibility, there was another more likely explanation.

One that was far more alarming.

Robin had in a moment of crisis thrown fire at Teekl. The action had likely saved his life. Still it was an alarming occurrence. Certain species of Foxkin had certain gifts. Fire was a specialty favored by more than one species, but it was also decidedly dangerous. Then there was the fact that every time they'd seen Robin demonstrate his gift, it had been blue. Varying shades of blue, but blue none the less. He wasn't sure if that was simply because of the admittedly limited sample or if it was just something unique to Robin. Either way, if Robin ever lost control they were going to have a problem on their hands. His friend had been successfully suppressing his nature for several years. A situation that had to stop. He needed to learn to control his gift, or it would control him. That was one of the first things he'd learned at the conservatory of sorcery. First they had to fix what Klarion had broken.

That Robin was terrified of this getting back to Batman only complicated the task further. They would need to find a way to fix this without involving the league. He sat beside his friend for a while in silence and considered the problem. After a while he thought he had a solution. Turning his head he looked at his emotionally exhausted friend and smiled. "Here is what we are going to do." He said softly, rubbing Robin's shoulder in a comforting manner.

i Ch'amak is One of the Ancient Mayan words for Fox, Alux is a Mayan spirit of Mischief.I am using it in this case as a representation of the Native American Fox Spirit In a generic fashion and no offense is meant to anyone, let alone my own People.

ii This is the Korian Fox Spirit.

iii mother (according to the Romani to English online dictionary) I have found several spellings of this word.

iv Ramany word for dad (again according to google) Pronounced DAH-dro

v (poor-ee-DIE-uh) Romany word for Grandmother. Literally translates to (old mother) Since Richard is at best half Romany and possibly only a quarter if conflicting sources are to be believed I am going to differentiate between his grand Parents by simply having him use a different language for them.